20100601
africanews

United Nations (UN) Secretary General has tipped Malawi high on his world agenda. He said development at the Mwandama Village Millennium Village Project left him with no choice but to promote the landlocked country.

A UN summit is expected this September in Geneva and areas of health, security and communication are tops on his list.

Ban who jetted into the country last week, visited the village in Zomba District, southern Malawi, which has managed to cultivate enough food produce to sustain itself and sell.

"This country used to be hunger stricken. One out of three people in this village had no food and school was also unenjoyable due to hunger," he said during the tour. He added the village was a UN case study fit for every other country to analyse its success.

"There has been dramatic improvement in health and education, clean water. this is due to strong leadership, good policy and well integrated investment in agriculture, health, education and telecommunications," said an impressed Ban.

The UN top boss added there is need for support for such ambitious strategies towards beating the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

"They work and I have seen it. They work for real and there is real evidence that we can all achieve MDGs. All we have to do is to try and I am going to convince the summit to focus on MDGs," he said.

The income per capita, he observed, are now far much higher than before in this village.

"People in this community are able to feed theur families and send children to school. This was not the case previously," said Ban.

The UN leader also held talks with President Bingu wa Mutharika same Sunday and tried to convince parliamentarians a day earlier on Saturday. He wants the august house to change 'archaic laws' - including the famous gay legislation which saw an openly gay couple convicted to a maximum 14 years.